The cloudy world of "lookalike" products: Thatchers succeed in appeal against Aldi
Background
In 2024, the Intellectual Property Enterprise Court (IPEC) rejected Thatchers’ claim that Aldi had infringed their trade mark in respect of their cloudy lemon cider. The IPEC also rejected Thatchers’ claim under the law of passing off. Our analysis of that case can be found here.
Is regulation of litigation funding sector inevitable?
It is difficult to judge the age of the litigation funding industry in the UK, both because the confidentiality of funding means that it is hard to identify the funded claims, and because of the conceptual issue of how many funded claims it takes to establish an industry.
The liberalisation of champerty? Not quite.
In a rare decision on the law of champerty, the High Court has recently handed down judgment in Tactus Holdings Limited (in admin) v Philip Mark Jordan, considering whether an attempt to assign a claim for breach of warranties by the contractual party to another party is contrary to public policy.
The right to protest – when will the courts intervene when protestors’ identities are unknown?
Shell UK Ltd v Persons Unknown (the “Shell Case”)
On 5 December 2024, the English High Court granted a final injunction against “persons unknown” and 13 named defendants. The case involved three separate claims by Shell Group entities, which were dealt with together.
Shell’s three claims sought to protect its property from the actions of environmental protestors. The claims were in relation to its Haven Oil Refinery in Essex (the “Haven Claim”); its Shell Centre Tower in London (the “Tower Claim”); and Shell Petrol Stations (the “Petrol Stations Claim”).
“Rough and ready” – court rejects arguments that adjudicator’s comments were biased and impacted natural justice
The Technology and Construction Court (‘TCC’) recently enforced the decision of the adjudicator in the case of Essential Living (Greenwich) Limited v Conneely Facades Limited [2024] EWHC 2629, despite the defendant’s suggestion that the adjudicator had predetermined the case at an earlier stage in proceedings.
Anatomy of a Fall: What duties do occupiers owe to those using their premises?
On 19 December 2023, Lord Young issued his opinion in Jon William Davie v Powerteam Electrical Services (UK) Limited and Vinci Energies UK Holding Limited.
The case concerned the Occupiers’ Liability (Scotland) Act 1960 and raises timely questions of how far site occupiers must go to mitigate obvious risks and what is required to dismiss a personal injury action without hearing evidence.
The season of good will (written on the back of a mince pie box)?
Should you decide to write your will on the back of a couple of boxes of festive mince pies this Christmas, would it be considered valid? In this article we examine a recent English High Court case and highlight the key differences in relation to formal validity of a will in England and Wales on the one hand and Scotland on the other, as well as explaining the concept of probative or self-proving status in Scotland.